BtoB Media Business - June 2012 - (Page 16)

Production PRODUCTION Changing focus Many media companies have added video to the production department’s functions BY MARK J. MILLER PRESSING ISSUES Clear communication critical to content ick Elsener has more than 30 years of magazine production experience. He is currently VPproduction at Hanley Wood and chairman of American Business Media’s production and manufacturing technology committee. Media Business: What do you see as one of your biggest challenges right now? Nick Elsener: Managing the ever-changing landscape of our BIO e-media transitions NICK ELSENER in publishing. VP-production, Whether it’s ads Hanley Wood for the website, e-newsletters, tablets or mobile devices, all must be trafficked, usually via quick deadlines, then (quality assured) and properly placed. We find that many of our new ad campaigns are becoming infinitely more complicated, often involved with several print and digital products intertwined within one campaign, with multistep deadlines for each segment critical for the success of the whole campaign. This kind of complication and critical timing takes close coordination between our media entry team and our advertising operation’s execution on what are sometimes brutal deadlines. MB: Is that constant change exciting at all? Elsener: E-media production is new and exciting; but when it comes to managing its ad work flows, there are few long-term legacy tools and processes to lean upon. With e-media, much of what is being done today has not been done for very long; and any standards, if they exist at all, are new. What process works today changes rapidly with the technology and is likely to mutate through several stages before being honed for maximum accuracy and efficiencies. —M.J.M. N D igital responsibilities continue to challenge printcentric production departments at b-to-b media companies. Increasingly, online video is one of many digital tasks claiming a larger chunk of production department hours. The upside, of course, is that publishers are discovering that online video not only builds a larger audience but also creates additional inventory for advertisers. “Video continues to be one of the key drivers of digital media transformation in b-to-b,” said Scott Carr, senior VP-CTO at PennWell Corp., publisher of Oil & Gas Journal. “There is a strong value for our audience, and our delivery capabilities make it extremely attractive to advertisers and agency media buyers—who now can reach their critical demographics like never before.” Carr said PennWell has steadily ramped up its video production over the last two years. The company’s investment in video has doubled in that time, he added. “We are now showing video to our audience not only through our digital mediabranded websites but also through our other digital media platforms—specifically our apps on the iPhone, iPad and Android,” he said. “We are seeing strong growth, and the number of active videos we now keep as part of our content distribution is significantly higher than what we had two years ago.” IDG Enterprise, which publishes Computerworld, has its own full studio with HD digital equipment. Clients can choose from different video formats, such as one-on-one interviews or “Skype-style” interviews, according to Terri Sanford-Cook, IDG Enterprise’s executive producer of multimedia. With all of these technology resources and knowledge, IDG Enterprise’s production department has the capability to create and distribute the content completely based on a client’s needs. The IDG Enterprise video production team is made up of six people who all have broadcast TV, film and interactive backgrounds. “Everyone is able to handle all aspects within the video and/or digital interactive realm,” Sanford-Cook said. Not every b-to-b media company has the deep pockets of an IDG Enterprise, but even smaller publishers are embracing the possibilities of online video. Blood-Horse Publications, which publishes such titles as BloodHorse, doesn’t have the budget to maintain a studio like IDG Enterprise’s, but it is boosting its video presence nonetheless. “We continue to streamline our productions since efficiency is very important in working with a small staff that fills multiple roles,” said Alex Cutadean, a videographer at Blood-Horse. “We’ve scaled back the production level on certain projects when the expenditure was not crucial in conveying our message.” He said BloodHorse continues to attempt the highest production values possible, but the company’s audience has let it be known that it prefers having more video content available rather than top production values. Reacting to its readers’ demands, the company has built on its traditional coverage in the field by having reporters use iPhones to film and distribute interviews. Cutadean said that this has reduced the time it takes to get the content to end users. It also allows the company to use more employees as correspondents and videographers. The knowledge barrier is much lower when you’re using an iPhone to record than when you’ve got a full video setup to maneuver. The acceptance level for iPhone-quality video has grown in recent years. As Internet video has become ubiquitous, consumers have, in turn, become more accepting. “In the world of news reporting, it can be more important to show something less than optimal instead of nothing at all,” Cutadean said. Marco Aguilera, lead art director at UBM Canon, which publishes Medical Device+ Diagnostic Industry, said that his group is introducing a few technical upgrades and procedures into its work flow. “We are now delivering our finished videos to branded YouTube channels for all of our publications and divisions,” Aguilera said. As to the future, IDG Enterprise’s SanfordCook said that she sees her department as one that increasingly combines online videos, mobile device videos and social media. 16 | Media Business | June 2012 | mediabusinessonline.com http://www.mediabusinessonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BtoB Media Business - June 2012

BtoB Media Business - June 2012
Contents
UBM, Randall-Reilly revamp to pursue growth
Cutting-edge sites, apps reflect ongoing shift to digital
Publishers accelerate content licensing operations
Sales & Marketing
M&A
People
Production
Benchmarks
Why one media company expanded its footprint

BtoB Media Business - June 2012